Pleasant Valley Library Board Notes

The Pleasant Valley Free Library Board of Trustees assembled for the January meeting last Thursday. Currently the Board has ten regular members and one youth member.  All but one member attended the January meeting.  For many years the Board consisted of fifteen members, which I can say from my years as president was a larger number than desired much of the time. The only justification for such a large Board was that there were not an active Library Friends group nor was there much of a paid staff--one full-time director and two part-time librarians.  Because of there were not a lot of hands available to direct the work of the Library, the fifteen Trustees did a lot themselves.  The Trustees still do a lot, but today there is more staff available and also the Friends, who handle book sales that once fell to the Trustees, are organized.  With that in mind, several years ago the Board voted to allow some flexibility in the number of members, changing the by-laws to permit any number of members between eleven and fifteen.

This new rule had a problem that the Trustees did not perceive. Because Pleasant Valley is a Free Association library, the Trustees are the owners of the Library. New York State informed us that we cannot have a variable number of owners; so, after some discussion, the by-laws were changed once again, this time setting the number as twelve Trustees (and one or more nonvoting youth members). As with all changes in the by-laws, the new rule will need to be approved a second time at the next meeting before it becomes official.

Nevertheless, at this time the Nominating Committee of the Board, headed by Trustee Beatrice Simoni, is seeking two new members to bring the number up to the soon-to-be official twelve Trustees.  Sometimes it seems as if every civic-minded person in Pleasant Valley was once on the Board of the Library, so she is looking at former Trustees as well as at those few who have never been Board members. 

In another piece of business last week, the Nominating Committee presented its slate of officers for 2009.  Accepted by acclamation were Steve Mac Nish, president; Dave Kruger, vice-president, Maryelen Brown, treasurer; Bryan Bunch, deputy treasurer; and Daniela Pulice, recording and corresponding secretary. 

The Building Expansion committee, led by Ardith Orr, was happy to report that new joists have been installed in the attic that will keep the walls from shifting position.  Fundraising has been planning a series of Library tours, starting with a trial run with existing and past Trustees.  The trial run had been scheduled for January 10, but now has moved to its snow date of January 24.  Fundraising reported that money was still coming in to the Community Foundation from the recent mailing.  Most has been donated online at the Community Foundation Website, which can be reached by clicking on the underlined words in colored type.